Fintech News: October 21st, 2016

This week in fintech: Embracing fintech culture over fintech adoption, what finance can learn from disruption in the music industry, the invisible bank of the future, and the advantages of dollar-cost averaging.

Banks are being called “all talk, no action” and it sounds just like this week’s presidential debate. While banks invest heavily in internal “innovation labs,” many struggle to implement these labs’ ideas into the larger organization. These banks should focus more on embracing a culture of change that rewards challenging the status quo, and less on ways to “out-innovate” the market.

In a nutshell: “just because customers used to consume a product or service in one way, doesn’t mean that method will remain the preferred means of consumption forever.” From Sony’s Walkman to Apple’s iPod to streaming services like Spotify, the music industry has undergone transformations that many predict will occur in financial services.

KPMG released research predicting the “invisible bank” of the future, where banks control the internal infrastructure, and consumer-facing products are built by the likes of Facebook, Apple, and Google. The most successful banks will embrace the platform model by driving down costs, building third-party partnerships, and locking down on security.

Regularly timing your investments is one of the best ways to avoid stressing over market volatility. This strategy, known as dollar-cost averaging, removes the risk of trying to time the market. If you are putting away money every month, you are already taking advantage of dollar-cost averaging. Otherwise, newly popularized automated investing products make it easy to start.